The
advent of smartphones has given us easy access to internet and social
media. In turn, it has also given social media an easy entry into our
lives. The most influential of them being our beloved Facebook. There
is nothing Facebook doesn’t know. Whatever we do, wherever we go,
whoever we meet, everything is updated by us on this social
networking site. All information about our personal lives that we
upload for people to see is stored by this social media giant. And
Facebook has also found a very interesting way to use this
information to keep the users more engrossed:
the ‘Just for Fun Quizzes’.
Just
as the name suggests, this quizzes are fun activities wherein just
with a click on a link, you get answers to a number of funny
questions like ‘Who is your best friend?’, ‘Who is you
soulmate?’, ‘Who has a crush on you?’, ‘When and how are you
going to die?’ ‘Which celebrity do you resemble?’ and many
more. Basically, Facebook scans the information like your mutual
friends, posts, tags, uploaded photographs, likes, comments and so on
to find out the results. These quizzes are particularly very popular
with youngsters who take up almost each
and every activity that
is introduced on Facebook. Pooja Shirodkar, a youngster of 22,
says, “Although I don’t take these quizzes very seriously, I find
them very interesting. Sometimes I get really funny outcomes. It’s
entertaining.” She further states that apart from being funny,
these quizzes also act as a stress buster, cheering her up whenever
she is down. Not only do the youngsters take these quizzes, but they
also post the outcomes on their timeline. “I like to post the
results on Facebook because I love to see my friends’ reactions on
the posts,” adds Pooja.
When
Facebook is first introduced to youngsters, they are enthusiastic
about everything,
right from liking something, to commenting, posting a picture or just
surfing a news feed. But as time passes, all these things start
getting monotonous and boring. That’s why Facebook keeps bringing
in these fun activities in order to keep their users engrossed.
Another youngster, Urvi Ranade, 20, states, “I am someone who takes
these quizzes but does not post the
results
on my
wall.
It’s because I like to keep these things to myself. And though I
know that the
results
I’ll
get are merely based on my information online and aren’t
true,
I still love to find out what Facebook has to say about me,
out of curiosity.”
Facebook
is
alluring not only to
youngsters but elders
too.
We can find our parents too engaged in these fun tests. Veena Apte, a
mother,
says, “I don’t take up these tests as much as my teenage daughter
does. But I do love to do these activities once in a while.”
Reading other people’s results
is also a major factor influencing others to find out results of
their own. “While surfing through the news feed, sometimes I find
my friends who have taken tests like ‘what
is your personality type’
or ‘what
were you in your past life’.
When I see their
nice,
encouraging results, I am tempted to take up the test myself. I also
feel great when Facebook gives the correct answer sometimes,” Veena
adds.
Every
new trend has followers as well as haters. As surprising as it may
sound, there are a few youngsters who do hate these quizzes. “I
refrain from using those quizzes as I feel it gives away all our
personal information and it’s not really safe. Also, I find it
frustrating to read
the hundreds of posts from friends who carry out these tests and put
up the results on their wall. So I have blocked them all,” says
Gaurish Paranjape, 23.
So,
as it turns out, Facebook as usual succeeds on this front too. Some
people love these activities while some hate it, but everybody does
notice it, keeping the popularity of this social giant intact.
